The same business is not worth the same to two buyers with different objectives. Understanding what each acquirer is coming for is a seller's first decision — before the valuation, before the process.
An owner preparing to sell most often starts from a number: what the business is worth. They look for a multiple, compare it with recent transactions and arrive at a range. That range exists, and we build one in every mandate. But it answers an incomplete question. The price of an acquisition depends on what the buyer is coming for. The same business is not worth the same to two buyers with different objectives.
Oeneo, a group listed in Paris, provided an example in the summer of 2026. Its subsidiary Vivelys, which develops R&D, advisory and systems solutions for the wine industry, acquired Lamouroux — a company in the Gironde founded in 1988: around forty employees, close to €10m in full-year revenue, a specialist in automated temperature-control systems for wineries. The agreement was announced on 8 July, the deal completed on 1 September and paid entirely in cash. The price was not disclosed.
At Oeneo's scale, Lamouroux does not bring size. The press release says so itself: a "complementary technology building block", temperature control at the fermentation and ageing stages. The adviser who used to recommend a setting now sells the equipment that executes it. Advice, systems and hardware come under one roof, and the group says it intends to develop the business through its worldwide sales network.
A buyer who is coming for revenue or earnings pays a market multiple. That is the logic of a financial investor, and also that of a consolidating competitor: it buys cash flows, and cash flows have a known price.
A buyer who is coming for a building block it lacks reasons differently. Its reference is not the multiple; it is what building that block itself would cost — in money, in years and in risk of failure. If the block unlocks an offering, a market or a network on the buyer's side, the value of the acquisition shows up in the buyer's own accounts, not only in the target's.
This second logic does not guarantee a higher price. A strategic buyer only pays for the block if it needs it now, and if it knows how to make it pay within its own network. But when both conditions are met, the gap with a market multiple can be wide. That gap is what owners most often underestimate when they sell.
The first consequence concerns the buyer list. It is not built by sector or by size, but by what each candidate would be coming for: a skill, an installed base, a certification, a location, a team. Two candidates from the same sector can fall under two different pricing logics.
The second concerns the file. A strategic buyer does not read a set of accounts; it reads a demonstration: what the business can do that it cannot, what that would bring it, and how quickly. That demonstration is prepared inside the company, before the process. It assumes the owner has identified the block they hold — which is far from obvious from the inside, because a skill mastered for thirty years looks ordinary to the one who holds it.
The third concerns the negotiation. When several buyers fall under different logics, competitive tension does not act on the price alone. It reveals which one needs the business most, and that is the one with whom the terms are negotiated — warranties, timetable, the share paid in cash.
The reasoning works the other way round. On the buyer's side, the useful question is not only who is for sale. It is first what the acquisition must bring: a block missing from the offering, a market, a capability, a team. An acquisition does not create a strategy. It executes one that already existed. A buyer who buys without having answered that question pays a market multiple for an asset it will not know what to do with.
Further reading: our strategic advisory service. And on the price mechanics once the buyers are identified: Should you run a competitive sale process?
No. It pays more when the business brings it a building block it lacks and knows how to make pay within its own network. Without those two conditions, it reasons like a financial investor: a multiple on cash flows. The price gap comes from the buyer's need, not from its status.
By looking at the business from the outside: which skill, installed base, certification or location a third party would take years to rebuild. That is valuation work done before the process, and it shapes the list of buyers to approach.
No — put them side by side. Two candidates with different logics reveal which one needs the business most. That is the purpose of a competitive process, which acts on price but also on warranties and timetable.
Thirty minutes to identify what your business would unlock for an acquirer — with no commitment.
Let's discuss your project →